Now word has come out that at the recent combine some of those same adult men were asking inappropriate personal questions to the young players, questions about girlfriends and if players “like girls.” In other words, coded queries that really mean, “Are you gay?”

“They would ask you with a straight face,” Nick Kasa, a tight end from Colorado, told a radio station. “It’s a pretty weird experience altogether.”

Weird and, oh by the way, illegal due to workplace discrimination laws. And it is another embarrassment for the NFL, which recently had 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver, under the bright lights of the Super Bowl, saying he would never play with a gay teammate.

These questions are likely prompted by the strange Manti Te’o story and the accompanying rumors. When Katie Couric asked Te’o if he was gay he told her, “Far from it.” (A new category for sexuality? Bisexual, gay, straight, and “far from it”?). But team executives shouldn’t care if Te’o is gay but if he can play in the NFL: his performance in the BCS Championship game and in the 40 are far bigger concerns than what he does in his personal life.

The men asking inappropriate questions may not want to acknowledge it, but they have surely already scouted, drafted and employed gay players. The issue, for a league that too often shies away from a leadership role in important topics, is making the workplace safe and sane for such employees, allowing them to choose whether or not to be open. Commissioner Roger Goodell, who has a gay brother, should know that.

Instead, there’s a stealth effort to out players. There are knucklehead analysts like Jim Miller saying “as an organization are you going to bring that element into your locker room and think everything is going to be OK?” And there are young men like Kasa who are now worried that even discussing these “weird” questions could impact his draft status.